Arizona weekly enterprise., 1887-08-27
A pREARY COUNTRY.
Interesting Account of the Hudsoo H
 Region aad Its Inhabitants.


 ished at the extent of civilization among a class of people generally supposed to be savages, as well as at the awful grandeur of the scenery and forbidding aspect of the graveyard coasts along the shores of that northern sea. In all the uninhabitable region of North America there is nowhere to be found 8 more bleak, desolate, or dreary waste than that between Ungava Bay, off the coast of Labrador on the east, and Fort Churchill, on the west and southern part of Hudson Bay proper. Although little is known yet regarding this weird and frozen region, it has had growth within the last half century which has been something phenomenal, and having been measured according to its needs by the God of Nature has gone on ad- yancing from age to age, until at the present time, not alone the more fertile islands, but the extent of land back from the coast on either side, is thickly populated by people who hunt and fish and talk and chatter even among the misery and destitution which life in a region of perpetual frost and snow must bring. Hudson Bay itselt is really m island sea, extending between latitude 51 . and GA e nor tn, and longitude 77o and 95e west, and while about 1000 miles long at its greatest distance, is only about 600 miles in breadth, covering an area of ouar S00 0n0 oo,,.ra ,,;laS r. ;S c.,,;cr able only for about thtte months in the year-from the middle of June to the middle of September-and for the re- mainder of the year is filled with drift ice, which renders navigation, even for a short distance, an absolute impossi- biliIy The eastern coasts of the bay are sights to be admired, cliffs rising in many cases to height of from 200 to 400 feet abruptly from the waters edge, and. being composed of glacier-like substance which, being ever coated with ice and frozen snow, shine in the sunlight until it is almost impossible to look at them for any length of time The residents of this section are not properly Esquimaux. but a cross be. tween this race and the French and Indians, who have come in for the pur- pose of hunting and fishing. and finally settled down among the natives to live as they do and share with them in the privations which no other life affords On an average, in the summer months, the thermometer stands at about 45 c above, Vrylrflo fhn <1a runs as low as zoe below zero and will average about 25o below Fish are scarce and can be caught only in the | rivers, of which on tho east there is only the Great Whale, while on the west there are the Hayes, Nelson. Churchill, Moore, Albany, Weeknish. Main and Abbitibbe. Seal abound in plenty. but are extremely shy and bard foa the natives to get at, while porpoise and walrus are equally difficult to get | hold of. We're it not for the small fur bearing animals which are about the shores the poor half-breeds would stand a very good chance of perishing bJ hunger, as they can expect nothing ir the way of favors from the Hudson Bay Company's stores, few ot which are | along the coast. The natives live 1T little villages composed of from fifty tc one hundred rude huts. Each commu nifty has it's place of worship and it: church burial ground, which is conse cratcd by the Moravian missionaries. { few of whom are to be found wander ing about from village to village, iron the eastern extent of the settle ments down as far as Fort Churchill on the west. These faithful, beloved men expect no recompense fol their services, and if they did the, wouldn't get it, for there is not il all the country such thing as money the only exchange being in fish. oil O furs. Whenever one of tribe dies tn, rest of his family-meaning by that thr entire settlement-stop work for tn, day and prepare to bury him. If tn settlement possesses such a thing as , dinner bell, and the most of them do the oldest man in the village goes abou from hut to hut and rings the bell il front of each until the occupants com out, both big and little, and. fallin, into line, march after him. When tn circuit has been made, and big and littl are all collected, march is made fo the kirote, as it is called, the villag church, which consists of about an acr of ground simply inelosed by wall 0 stones near the middle of the commu nifty. Into this little field go the entir populace, and after chanting the virtue of the dead for some hours, the corps is taken away on skin rack an covered with ice and snow in the com mon burial plot. The rest of the da is spent in rejoicing. and the next day if the deceased was married, his bette half makes another choice, and at tn end of a week, if an agreement be com to. the dead is forgotten and the n longer sorrowing ones begin life owe again.-Cor. Pittsburgh Post
 A curious ear of corn was brouCh to the Sun office yesterday. It wa grown in Utica by Edward Jones, an is now owned by Daniel L. Jones, 2 McKibbin street, Brooklyn. The an bilious corn stalk attempted to grow
 half bushel of corn on one stem, an